To The Beat Of Our Noisy Hearts
by queenofthelooneybin
Summary: Illogical behavior caused Zack to lose the love of his life. Now, nearly 20 years later, everything comes back in painful bursts when a girl with her eyes becomes Brennan's grad student.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is an AU tangent to my other BONES story 'Sooner Surrender'. For the ones who don't feel like reading everything again here it is: Chapters 32-33 were a warp of 'The Proof in the Pudding'. Starbuck's test was a false positive and she and Zack ended up living happily ever after. But, what if she was pregnant and didn't tell Zack? This is that story.

Xxx

January 2010

She could honestly say that she never saw this coming. Who would? Pregnant and dumped at merely 21. She stood in her bathroom, in her empty house, staring at the stick with the two pink lines. This stick had chosen her path. Motherhood instead of the bohemian life she had vowed to live after college. Sure, there was always abortion, but she didn't want the death of her child on her conscience as well as everything else. Catholic guilt was a funny thing. It made you flip your life path around.

She put a hand on her stomach. Under it, under the thin skin and bones was a baby. A tiny mush of veins and tissue that would tie her and Zack together for the rest of their lives, if she chose to let him know. But, she didn't want him to be with her just because she was having his kid and it was forced. They would grow to resent each other and maybe hate each other when they realized that nothing about their relationship was real anymore.

So she would keep it (as she did not know the gender of their child yet) a secret. It would be her own. Lisey and Emma, not to mention Lance, would know in due time, when she was ready to tell them where she was and their silence was ensured.

But for now, she would have to be alone in this endeavor.


	2. Chapter 2

August 2018

She is worried. A gray hair appeared yesterday, totaling seven since she got the news. Her baby girl is going back to where it all began. It's fitting that she will walk where both her parents once walked, and maybe even work side by side with him. When Molly told her the news, she had tried to dissuade her. Told her that Roswell was their home, and she couldn't just pack up and leave. It was hypocritical of her, she knew, but she didn't want Molly to find out about her father this way.

_We were young, and irrational. We had a fight and broke up. A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant with you. I never told him._

Molly had accepted this answer to her questions about her father. She had been content with her mother and Brian, her ex-husband.

There had never been any romance between her and Brian. He was gay and British. He needed to stay in the country and she needed help with her two year old. It had been a perfect arrangement. He had adopted Molly and they had lived happily for 10 years. Then, they divorced, but stayed best friends. That was easy, when there had been no romance to remember and regret. She still loved another man and Brian loved men in general. It had been perfect.

_Please God_, she prayed as she watched the sun rise. _Don't let her find out soon._

Xxx

_Okay, okay. Calm down. This is no big deal. Brennan picked you to be her personal grad student over dozens of applicants. That's because you are amazing. You're smart, fast, and have long ass legs that won't quit. Don't know how that's relevant, but a bit of confidence never hurt anyone. Now go out there and kick some ass!_

Molly Aldrin was standing at the entrance to the Medico-Legal Lab, wearing her blue lab coat over one of her favorite outfits: a gray tank top, skinny jeans and black Converse All-Stars that had belonged to her mother. Her mom, Star, had brought these a few months before she had gotten pregnant with Molly. After her feet had swollen, she had abandoned them and Molly had found them in the attic. There was an atom drawn on the toe in black Sharpie. The angle told her that someone that wasn't her mother had drawn it. Maybe her birth father.

The man was a mystery. A tall, faceless human with brown hair and pale skin that sang like an angel and could figure out math problems faster than her friends could do shots. Those traits had been given to Molly. She had her mother's eyes and curly hair, which she straightened so it wouldn't get in the way when she worked. They had split before she was born. No one would tell her anything. Her aunts and uncle were mute when it came to the topic of the sperm donor. She was going to turn 18 next month. Maybe someone would tell her then.

Molly really needed to know the truth. That was all she had ever wanted, to know who she was and where she had come from.


	3. Chapter 3

For a moment, he thought he saw her.

But the features were all wrong. Her nose, her mouth. Plus the girl was too young to be her. This wasn't the first time. Over the past 18 years, he had seen her countless times. A woman in a bookstore had her hair, a girl at the diner had her laugh.

This girl was Brennan's grad student. She couldn't be her. The girl, Maria aka Molly, was too young. She was young enough to be their child, if they had ever been careless. He had met her the week before, during her final interview. She had been familiar then as well, causing another double take. Even after nearly 20 years, he held onto a tiny shred of hope. She had loved him, at least she had said she did.

No one would tell him where she had gone. Emma had told him to go fuck himself while Lisey and Sweets maintained a wall of silence. He had never stopped looking. Weekly online searches only told him that she wasn't dead. It was like she had fallen off the face of the Earth. He had checked Limbo for her remains countless times. She wasn't there either. Starbuck seemed to only exist in his mind and in the photos he kept in his desk.

The pictures had started to curl in on themselves after a while. By now, the edges were curled up and some of the faces creased. But her face was still a beacon, frozen forever at 21.

All Zack Addy wanted before he died was to see her one last time, tell her he was sorry.

But that wasn't going to happen.

So he lived with the regret and sorrow, his own burden.


	4. Chapter 4

"Do you know Dr. Addy' story?" Serena White asked. She was a grad student from Paleontology and the only friend that Molly had made in her week and a half she had been at the Jeffersonian outside her department. At the moment, they were in the break room, eating lunch and Serena gossiping while Molly listened.

"He has a story?" Molly asked, taking a sip of her Coke.

"Yeah! And it's totally tragic," Serena said and took a breath before she began. "Okay, this was like 20 years ago. I heard it from like the grad student before you who heard it from Angela. Anyway, Dr. Addy had a girlfriend. And they were so crazy in love and everyone thought they were going to be together forever. But, something happened, no one really knows for sure, and she just vanished. And his heart was totally broken. Like, shattered. So he has spent the past twenty years looking for her, but he hasn't found a trace of her. Isn't that sad? He's going to go to his grave not knowing what happened to the love of his life."

It made Molly think of her mother. And how she still loved the sperm donor, for reasons Molly didn't understand. It was illogical for her to still love someone she hadn't seen in nearly 20 years. She wasn't dumb. A bottle of wine in the trash and an empty internet history meant that her mom had spent the night Googling the SD. Zack's story made her want to cry a bit. She knew what that sort of sadness did to someone. She had seen it change her mother. Bags under her eyes, crow's-feet, a low movement that meant she had given up. That sort of longing poisoned you.

After lunch, Molly went to her little office and put her head down on her desk. She wanted to call her mom, she wanted to go home or get some answers.

_You're getting close_; a little voice in her head told her. Soon, you will have all your answers. She reached into her shirt and pulled her necklace from its hiding place. The simple cross had an infinity symbol wrapped around it. When she was 14, she had been snooping in the attic and found it in a box, along with a scrapbook that wouldn't open, a wool hat and a maroon t-shirt. Molly just knew they were reminders

of the SD. She needed to get that book open. It held all the answers.

Xxx

Note: Okay, these items were mentioned in 'Sooner Surrender'.

The cross: A Christmas gift from Zack, given to her in Chapter 22.

The scrapbook: Starbuck's psychology project, mentioned in Chapter 13

The wool hat: Given to Starbuck in Chapter 23

The shirt: Zack's valued Firefly t-shirt, his first toke of affection given to Star in Chapter 17.


	5. Chapter 5

Note: The chapter we have all be waiting for- one of the other two squint lovers comes in and you find out the fate of the other one.

xxx

"Can you check on her? Please?" Starbuck asked one of her best friends as she paced up and down the living room. The boxes were half-packed. She was going to hop a plane to DC any day now.

As soon as she was ready to face the past and tell the truth. It wasn't going to be easy. And she was going to need a few drinks before she even got on the plane.

"Sure, sure." There was a clatter on the other end and her friend yelled for her children to have a nice day and not to bite their classmates.

In DC....

"Love is a many-splendored thing, It's the April rose that only grows in the early spring."

Molly was singing.

Not the toneless crap that the woman whose place she took would torture them with. Even Zack had gotten fed up and yelled at her.

But Molly was good.

Hodgins was the first to hear it and a chill ran up his spine. Her voice reminded her of someone else. As he pondered this, Angela left her office at the sound. Molly was on a platform, trying to peice a body that had fallen from a window back together. Her iPod was in her ears, full blast. She was totally oblivious to the world around her.

"Whoa," Angela turned to her husband and they said the same thing. "Doesn't she sound familiar?"

"Yeah," Hodgins agreed.

At the other end of the lab, a random blue coat (which is what I now call those random intern people you see in the background) was nearly run over by a very pregnant, very unhappy federal prosecutor.

Emma Bray was the only federal prosecutor since Caroline Julian who actually got involved with the squints. She was at the lab almost as much as Booth, and like her predecessor, had a slight temper (although Emma was more volatile) and was secretly beloved by all. She was married to one of the Jeffersonian's forensic anthropologists, Wendell Bray. They had three children all boys, ages 13 year old twin and a 9 year old. Emma was pregnant with their fourth. At 37, it had been a surprise. She still yelled at her husband for the one time he forgot to wear a condom. The hormones were wreaking havoc on her temper at work and the purple haired woman still went to court, despite being only a week away from giving birth. She planned to work until she was ten centimeters.

"Maria!" Emma called to her god-daughter and gave her a hug. "How are you? How's work?"

"Great," Molly said and hugged her back. Or tried to. Emma was really fat. "How's Wendell? How are the kids?"

"Good, good. They can't wait to see you."

Emma's cell phone rang. It was Alicia Vazir, another one of Molly's aunts. Alicia was a fashion designer out in L.A. She lived there with her husband. They had met when she had come to the Jeffersonian with a bucket of paint and a pig's stomach so she could get back at her ex-boyfriend, Colin Fisher. He had dumped her for someone else, and she had been pissed. But, Arastoo had calmed her down that night and given her a mix CD when she came back to say thanks. They had moved to L.A ten years before so he could work at the Medico-Legal Lab that had opened there. They had six kids, four girls and two boys. It scared their friends how much they had spawned in only 11 years of marriage.

"How's Molly?" Alicia asked as she fed her four year old.

"Great. Loves the job." Emma then handed Molly the phone so she could talk to her aunt. Then, she took it away and went to talk privately.

"Is he there?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah. But I don't think he knows or suspects a damn thing."

"Are you sure?"

"I think so. Fuck, how can he not know. She looks like him, she sings like him. I wanna smack him and make him see." Emma glared at Zack as he came into the lab. She still hated him for what he had done, and actually liked knowing about Molly. Several times in the past, she had been tempted to tell him. When he asked about Starbuck, she usually told him to go to hell. Yet, he persisted.

Maybe he did love her.

No time to think about that. She had a serial killer to put away.

xxx

Note: Coming up next: Molly gets a D.C driver's license, we find out her middle name and someone finally starts to suspect something.


	6. Chapter 6

By Molly's second week, Angela had moved beyond it being merely a theory.

It took two incidents to make her sure of it.

Incident One: The Driver's License

"I got my driver's license! I got my driver's license!" Molly ran up the platform without swiping her card, setting off the alarm. While Hodgins swiped his card, Angela bent over Molly's shoulder.

"Oh my god, you look so cute!" Angela squealed. Hodgins had to stand on his tip-toes to see.

"Your middle name is Firefly?" he asked. Molly rolled her eyes.

"Yeah. I think my mom was a fan of the show way back when. I mean, I found a t-shirt in the attic a couple years back. But when I asked, she shut down. Yet again, my mom was never the most open person."

"What about your dad?" Angela asked.

"My step-dad doesn't know anything either. My birth father...I never met him. I guess he took off when he found out my mom was pregnant, although she makes it out like she dumped him. Mom never talks about him. It's like its too painful." Molly's smile slipped off her face. "When I was growing up, sometimes I would catch her looking at me like she was about to cry. Always when I was doing geek stuff. It's like she saw him in me and that hurt her pretty bad."

"Hey, your birthday is next week!" Hodgins decided to change the subject.

The next morning was the usual chaos. Angela was running late because three of her kids had a cold and the fourth had lost her soccer uniform. Hodgins had to drive her to school while Angela called the nanny away from her day off. Cam's oldest grandchild had somehow taken the bus to her house and needed to be brought back home. Brennan was called away from a crime scene because her oldest son had done something to get him suspended. To cap it all off, Molly got caught in the downpour and needed to go home and change.

This led to Incident Two: The Similarities.

When Molly came back to the Jeffersonian, her hair was an explosion of curls that nearly hid her face until she found a very strong rubber band to tie it back. Then, there was her t-shirt. It was maroon, with Firefly written across it in maroon letters. When Zack saw it, his eyes went wide, but he soon returned to work. But when Angela saw them standing side by side on the platform, she nearly fell over.

It was like she had fallen into some weird time-warp mirror thing. The way they stood, the way they held their heads, the hair color and just so many little things. But when Molly looked up, Angela had a flashback to a long ago Thanksgiving.

_When Angela got to them, she almost tripped over __Clark__'s sleeping bag. Apparently, he had migrated since they had set up. On the other side of the lounge, she saw one very big lump. At first, she didn't recognize them. Then, features began to be distinguishable. Her curly hair, his pale skin, an arm and then the outline of their bodies._

_"Hey, wake up!" she hollered. __Clark__ grumbled and got up. Zach and Starbuck opened their eyes and saw her, and each other. He turned red, and so did she, but it turned up a bright pink. _

Angela saw the long ago woman in Molly. She had to talk to someone and there was only one person that was truly rational.

"Brennan, can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Yes," Brennan said.

"Do you ever think about Starbuck?"

"Starbuck Mendoza?"

"Yes."

"On occasion."

"Think about Molly. She turns 18 next week, putting her conception during that giant blizzard of 2009. Starbuck left six weeks after that, three weeks after the break-up. And Molly has a t-shirt just like the one Zack gave Starbuck."

"Molly and Zack do share some features…"

"I think Molly is Zack and Starbuck's daughter."


	7. Chapter 7

She knew who_ he_ was.

It had come to her in a sudden burst of clarity on a Tuesday. She had talked to her mother on Sunday.

"Tell me everything about the squints."

"Well, I just love them! Brennan is brilliant, I mean really brilliant, and Angela is my work mom. Hodgins freaks me out a bit, but now I know a lot about secret societies and shit."

"Hodgins? Jack Hodgins?"

Her mother's voice squeaked when she said the man's name. At the time, she had thought nothing of it.

"Yeah, he's Angie's husband. They have the cutest kids! And Zack…he doesn't say much. Supposedly, he has some big tragic romantic past. She just vanished. One of the other interns thinks he killed her and like spread her remains in Limbo. But he's so sad that I think he didn't." A text popped up on her phone. "We have a case. I love you mommy!"

But, hours later, she started to feel something under her skin, in her brain. Something her mother had said was bugging her. As she worked on cleaning the remains, Zack watching her to make sure she didn't blow anything up. Whenever Molly heard about the experiments, she all but begged to do one with them. But they explained that back then, they had done experiments to figure out things that they now had the technology to find out. But, she still hung onto every story. The bouncing turkey and the pig in the wood chipper were her favorites. When she was a kid, her mother used to tell her stories about whacky scientists. Now that she thought about it…

The bouncing turkey, a pig in the wood chipper, something about stabbing a fake body had all been stories her mother had told her.

One afternoon, Molly went to talk to Angela at lunch. She hadn't been able to eat for a while and it was starting to affect her work as well.

"Can I ask you about the experiments?" Molly asked.

"Sure," Angela smiled.

"Did you ever dress up a dummy and stab it with a special knife?"

"A couple times yeah. I remember once, we dragged a friend of Zack's into it. She kept missing the head she was supposed to hit and gave up, claiming she had decided to become a pacifist." Angela smiled and shook her head. Molly was frozen in her seat.

Another one of her mother's stories.

This was too weird.

She thanked God that her friends were coming to DC for her birthday. Laura and Erin were her trusted counsel, friends since they were really little. While they weren't super-brains like her, they were smart and had kept her normal. If they hadn't been there, she could have turned out like Zack.

Or Hodgins.

Xxx

"What up dick-licker?" Laura James bounded onto a platform and flung her arms around her best friend. The alarms went off and Molly had to swipe her card. "Whoo, whoo, fancy pants here!"

"Hey girl," Erin Zimmerman grinned as she swept her bright pink hair from her face. "This place is all you ever dreamed of, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess," Molly said. "God, I've missed you guys so much!"

"Guess what, guess what?" Laura let go of her and began to bounce up and down. "Guess what?" She dragged out the last word until it lasted nearly a minute.

"We got a gig at some club downtown and your mom is coming to see us play." Erin rolled her eyes at Laura's excitement. "What? I thought you were gonna piss yourself."

The trio had a band back in Roswell. Molly was vocals and lead guitar, while Laura was bass and backup vocals and Erin was drums. They had been pretty good, mixing covers with their own songs. For some reason, Molly's mother used to watch them play for hours, crying at random moments. 'Swing Life Away' by Rise Against was the one that usually did it. Laura's uncle owned a club downtown and he had been able to get them the eight to nine pm the night before Molly's birthday.

"Wow. I haven't played in weeks," Molly said and hugged her friends.

"Any progress on the daddy hunt?" Laura asked later, over lunch.

"I have a suspect." Molly leaned forward. "I can be paranoid." The girls nodded. "I am crazy smart. And I have really curly hair that's on the brown-ish side."

"It's brown. Accept it," Erin interrupted. Molly glared at her before continuing.

"My mom told me stories about this place. These people." She took a deep breath. "I think Jack Hodgins is my father."

Xxx

Note: Next chapter is the one we've been waiting for. Starbuck comes back to DC after nearly 20 years to confront the past and her baby daddy.

I just love Molly. And does her little gang remind anyone of another trio?

And does anyone want Lisey to make an appearance?


	8. Chapter 8

Roswell

The plane was delayed. The freaking plane was delayed. Starbuck wanted to throw someone out the window to show how pissed she was that she was going to have two fewer hours to spend with her baby. She slumped back in her seat, and downed her tiny bottle of vodka, glaring at her seatmate, who was drooling on her leg. This was just perfect, she thought and signaled the waitress for another. If she was going to face Zack and the rest, she might as well have a lot liquid courage in her.

"Alicia." She dialed her best friend and the other woman picked up right away. Like she was supposed to be, Alicia was in DC for Molly's birthday. Arastoo and the brood were in L.A, which would be funny to see. There were six of them. All of them single births and somehow Alicia had kept her figure.

"Calm down chica, I am at the airport," Alicia said.

"Lisey, I'm still in Roswell. You have to go to the Jeff."

"Shit, fuck, mother duck."

"I think it's time."

"Really?"

"Don't tell her. Drop a hint or two. Make her think."

"Will do."

****

**D.C**

When Alicia Vazir walked into the Jeffersonian, she made jaws drop. For a mother or six (and maybe seven, if things worked out), she looked good. Blond, with a porn star's body. Thank God for cosmetic surgery.

"Molly!" Alicia squealed and ran up her to god-daughter, sweeping her into a hug. "Oh my God, you look so pretty! Playing with dead people really agrees with you, huh?"

"Aunt Lisey," Molly said. "I've missed you."

"Hey Lise." Emma waddled up, still very, very pregnant, but still working. She had just come from court, and was amused at the fear in the eyes of the defense, defendant and even the judge.

"Holy shit, you're fat!" Alicia declared and hugged Emma. "Damn, are you ready yet?"

"Two more days then he's out," Emma said and rubbed her belly. "How are you Molly? Excited to be 18?"

"Um, yeah," Molly gave a fake smile. "Can we talk?"

"Sure, sure." Molly dragged them into her office and sat them down. "I will ask you this once and you will answer truthfully." She took a deep breath. "Is Jack Hodgins my father?"

Emma gasped and Alicia nearly fell off her chair laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Just the thought of your mom and Hodgins." Emma said. Alicia now fell off the chair and was rolling around on the floor, gasping and hooting. "Oh honey, no, no, no. God no. Your mom met your father and BOOM, she never looked at another guy again. Ever. And if Hodgins was your father, you would be a hobbit."

"So, my father is tall."

"And very smart and sings like an angel. Your mama sings like a dying sheep on crack."

"That makes no logical sense."

"You talk like him too. It took months for them to get together because your mom was scared and your father thought it was illogical. Fucking idiot."

"I thought you said he was smart. How can he also be an idiot?" Molly looked confused.

"Yep, you're your daddy's girl." Angela then popped her head in and asked Molly to find a file in Zack's office. When she saw Alicia on the floor, she just raised an eyebrow and slowly backed away. As she walked down the hall, she heard Emma curse and yell "Get off the damn floor. I can't help you, I'm fat, remember?"

In Zack's office, Molly was looking over the top of his desk, trying to find a file that seemed to not exsist. An envelope was on the desk and she moved it. Three photographs fell out. Molly picked them up, curious. They were old, the edges curled and worn. One was of the whole squint squad (Zach, Hodgins, Sweets, Angela, Booth, Brennan, Cam, for some reason her Aunt Daisy, some guy who was half in the shot and a woman with curly dark hair). The second was of Zack sittong on a couch, his arms around the waist of the woman sitting on his lap. The third made her gasp. It was of the woman with curly dark hair sitting on a bed wearing Zack's blue lab coat and nothing else. It took her a moment to realize why the woman looked familiar.

It was her mother.

"Holy fuck," Molly breathed and bolted. Angela saw her and grabbed her wrist.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"No, no, this is just too weird. Too weird!" Molly wailed and ran out of the lab. Angela felt very confused. She went into Zack's office and found the photos on the floor. That made sense.

xxx

When Starbuck got the call, she was in the cab on her way to the apartment. It was Alicia

"We have a problem."

"What?"

"Molly went AWOL."

"WHAT?"

"We'll find her, I swear."

"You better, or I will kill you. A lot." Starbuck then hung up and asked the driver to take her to the Jeffersonian. That meant turning all the way around, but she gave him a nice tip and let him go.

And for the first time in 18 years, eight months and twenty days, she walked into the Medico-Legal Lab. Not much had changed. She was able to find her destination with no trouble and knocked on the door. He looked up and for a moment they went back in time. It was 2009, and she was waiting for him to get off work so they could go somewhere, maybe the diner or the park. He got up and touched her face, as if he couldn't believe she was standing right here, right now. Starbuck grabbed his hand and pressed her mouth to the scars, like she had so many times long ago.

"Zack, we have to talk." She took a deep breath. "Our daughter is missing."

xxx

Note: DUN, DUN, DA! Only a few more chapters left! Soon- How will Zack react? Where did Molly go? Will Emma EVER have her baby? And lastly did Alicia get off the floor? Find out!


	9. Chapter 9

"Molly is our daughter?" Zack asked. They were sitting in his office, Zack still in shock, on repeat. It had been the only thing he could say for the past two minutes.

"Yes." Starbuck said again.

"Do you know what today is?"

"Of course I do."

"Nineteen years ago, we met at the Bell Bottom's Mini-Mart three and a quarter blocks from here. And eighteen years ago, you gave birth to our daughter. Molly is our daughter."

"Can we skip ahead 18 years to our daughter being missing?" Starbuck flung her hands in the air. "What the hell happened?"

"She found these." Zack showed her the pictures that he had kept in his desk. Starbuck's hand flew to her mouth and tears welled in her eyes.

"You kept them. Why?"

"Because…I have been waiting for you to come back. I know it's illogical, but I wanted you to come back. And after a few years, it became habit."

"That makes sense."

There was a pause and he bent his head closer to hers. Time fell away and they were young again. Nothing had changed them, they were untouched. Zack titled her chin upwards and she leaned in. The edge of her shirt slipped down and her tattoo showed, and that completed the transport into the past. Just before their mouths met, someone coughed loudly.

"As much as this little moment touches my heart, I have to interrupt it," Emma had a hand to her belly and she was breathing heavily. "My water just broke and that means the baby is coming, so someone has to get me to the hospital or else my child is going to be born the middle of the lab and DO YOU WANT THAT BECAUSE I DON'T!"

"I don't have a car!" Starbuck said at the same time Zack reminded them that he still couldn't drive. Emma let out a loud groan when a contraction hit and Starbuck grabbed her arm. All three walked outside, where Starbuck tried to hail a cab for Emma. When they did find one, she tried to just stuff Emma inside the cab and leave. She failed and Emma dragged her in. Zack just stood on the sidewalk and Starbuck poked her head out and yelled "FIND HER!" and then the cab was driving into the night.

Three and a quarter blocks away, Molly was sitting in the ramen noodle aisle of the first place she had been able to duck into. She had been there for over an hour, and had just stopped crying. The shock was too much. She had stopped crying after twenty minutes, but when she had realized where she was, it had started the floodgates all over again. This was the place where her story had begun. Right here, two people had gotten a love-punch to the gut.

"Hey, you okay?" Molly turned around to see Russ Booth behind her. Her boss' oldest son was the only male in the DC area under than age of 30 that she talked to on a regular basis.

"Zack is my father." She blurted out.

"Wow. That's pretty heavy man. How'd you find out?"

"I found pictures of them from when they were a couple and I just knew." Molly wiped her eyes. Mascara was on her knuckles. "Shit. I'm late for the show."

"I'll give you a ride."

"I didn't know you had a car."

"I don't. I have a motorcycle." Russ held up a bike helmet and offered it to her. Molly reached to for and her fingers brushed his. A spark passed between them and he swore under his breath. Molly's heart skipped a beat.

"Let's roll," Molly said and put the helmet on.


	10. Chapter 10

They had only gone a few blocks from the hospital when Emma remembered she had left her purse at the lab. Much to the cab driver's chagrin, she made him turn back. It didn't seem to matter that her contractions were less than two minutes apart and her body was on the verge of telling her to push. When they got to the lab, they saw Zack still there, waiting for Molly to return.

"Starbuck." He got up and went over to them. "Is something wrong?"

"Shit, goddamn it," Emma groaned. "Oh hell. We won't be needing the cab anymore Star."

"Why?" Starbuck and Zack chorused, both a bit confused and scared.

"The baby is coming. Like right now!" Emma screamed as a sharp, long pain coursed through her.

"Oh shit!" Starbuck ran for the nearest gurney and told Emma to hop in. "Zack, go pay the cab driver. We won't be needing him anymore." She threw some money at him and he obeyed. A motorcycle almost ran him over. To his surprise, Molly hopped off it.

"Zack?" she sounded amazed.

"Molly, where were you? Your mother and I have been looking for you." He sounded so much like a father that Russ wanted to laugh. But this wasn't his drama, so he just muttered a goodbye and left them standing there in the rain. "You are going to miss your set and Emma is in labor."

"God," Molly rolled her eyes and ran into the lab, her father at her heels. In the lab, Starbuck had found some gloves and a scalpel and was about to pull the baby out.

"Push, push!" she yelled.

"How do you know how to deliver a baby?" Zack asked.

"We lived on a ranch for a while. Human babies and cow babies all come out the same way." Starbuck said. "PUSH!" A soft cry sounded throughout the lab. "It's a girl."

Xxx

Molly had slipped out when the EMTs had come. This time, they knew where she was going. Wendell was going to meet his wife and daughter at the hospital, so Zack and Starbuck were free to track down their daughter. Halfway to the bar, he put his arm around her shoulders. Without missing a beat, she put her arm around his waist.

"Zack," she said as they waited for the light to change. "Do you think if I had told you about Molly, you would have stepped up, done the right thing?"

"Yes. Not out of duty, but because I loved you."

"What are your feelings for me now?" she knew how adolescent she sounded, but she couldn't help herself.

"I spent the past eighteen years looking for you. I identified nearly all the women in their early twenties in Limbo, hoping to at least have an answer. And I haven't been with anyone else."

Before she could answer, they saw that they had reached the bar. From the sidewalk, they could hear Molly singing. When they got inside, the song had ended. Molly looked up and saw them. She turned to her band mates and said something.

"This is dedicated to my mom and dad. Aunt Alicia told me this was your song."

**_Am I loud and clear, or am I breaking up?  
Am I still your charm, or am I just bad luck?  
Are we getting closer, or are we just getting more lost?_**

Zack took the hand Starbuck offered and pulled her close.

"I still love you. I always have," she said, her cheek resting on his shoulder.

"The why did you leave?" Zack said into her hair.

"Fear. Anger. A lot of things. Mostly because I thought you didn't love me and would tell me to fuck off."

"But I wouldn't have."

"I know that now. But I was young and I wanted to be a good mom, give Molly the childhood I always wanted."

"You did a good job. She is a good person. I would be proud of her."

"She's so much like you; it used to freak out Lance."

"But she looks like you. She has your smile and your eyes." They came closer and he brushed a curl from her eyes, just like old times. She blushed a faint pink and leaned in. Zack hesitantly leaned in. She grinned and grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a kiss. Onstage, Molly grinned,

_Yes._

Xxx

Just For the Record:

Emma named her daughter Star Maria. Wendell doted on his little girl, who followed in his footsteps.

Alicia did get off the floor. She never had another child, but ended up more than enough grandchildren. (17)

Starbuck and Zack got married their first Christmas Eve together as a family. They had another child, who they named Michael.

Only their parents were surprised when Molly and Russ ran off together the summer after he graduated college. They returned in the fall. Russ became a writer and proposed to Molly at the movie premiere of an adaptation of his book.

And Hodgins never found out he was a baby daddy candidate.

THE END

XXX

Note: This leg of the journey has ended. If I produce anything else concerning Starbuck and co. (the damn finale gave me another idea that I am hesitant to use) do not be surprised. But I won't. Yet again, Kevin Smith said the about Jay and Silent Bob and co. when he made _Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back._ My new idea will be on my profile. Check it out, message me if you want to see it.

Love,

Annie


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: The final, final chapter. Just something I thought up when I was smoking with my buddies.

Xxx

The Final She Said/He Said.

**She Said:**

"What the hell is that?"

"That's my baby."

"It's all red and wrinkly."

"She's a few hours old you cow!"

"Children!"

"Hey Star."

"Where's Zack?"

"OMG, you two got back together?"

"Lisey, you're forty. OMG is not for you anymore."

"Shut up."

**He Said:**

"Congrats man. The kid looks like you."

"Thanks. Isn't she adorable?"

"If you think baldness and wrinkles are attractive."

"Wait until you have a kid Zack."

"I do have a kid. She's 18."

"Wait, what?"

"Molly is my daughter."

"Whoa. Did not see that coming."

"I hope fatherhood is rewarding."

"Your kid is grown-up. You missed the hard stuff."

Xxx

Note: Yup, yip, the real end. And look out for 'Solace and Pain', the AU redux of 'Sooner Surrender'.


End file.
